The present invention relates to a disk magazine remover system for use, e.g., in a changer type compact disk (referred hereinafter as "CD") player which can play a plurality of CDs consecutively.
There is known a changer type CD player having a magazine which can receive, for example, 10 CDs, in which a CD is selectively withdrawn from the magazine and loaded on an optical pickup for replay, and it is received in the magazine again after replay.
This CD player includes a disk magazine remover system which is disclosed, for example, in JP-U 62-90453. Referring to FIGS. 9 to 11, this disk magazine remover system designated by a reference numeral 100 includes a chassis 101 on which a magazine 102 with CDs (not shown) is slidably set, a lock lever 103 for locking the magazine 102 set on the chassis 101 through a click 103a which is protrudably arranged on the chassis 101 to engage with a recess 102a of the magazine 102, a slide ejector lever 104 slidably mounted to the chassis 101 on its lower side 101b and having an engagement portion 104a which protrudes from the chassis 101 to press a back 102b of the magazine 102 at its one end (left end as viewed from the front of the magazine 102) so as to eject the magazine 102. An extension coil spring 105 as an elastic member is arranged between the ejector lever 104 and the chassis 101 for biasing the ejector lever 104 in such a direction as to eject the magazine 102 (referred hereinafter as " magazine ejecting direction"), and a lock releasing mechanism 110 for releasing a lock on the magazine 102 by the lock lever 104.
The lock releasing mechanism 110 includes generally a motor 111 fixedly mounted on the lower side 101b of the chassis 101 and having a rotation shaft with a gear 112, a cam gear 116 having a cam groove 116a which receives torque from the gear 112 of the motor 111 through a worm gear 113 and a pair of intermediate gears 114, 115, and a lock releasing lever 117 having a base 117a pinned to the chassis 101, and one end 117b engaged with the groove 116a and the other end 117c to be in contact with the lock lever 103 so that the click 103a of the lock lever 103 protrude from the chassis 101. The cam gear 116 has a small gear portion 116b engaged with a large gear portion 118a which is integrally formed with a swing lever 118 at its one end, which is pinned to the lower side 101b of the chassis 101. Arranged between the other end of the swing lever 118 and the ejector lever 104 is an extension coil spring 119 as an elastic member for biasing the ejector lever 104 in the magazine ejecting direction. It is to be noted that in FIGS. 10 and 11, a reference numeral 106 designates an extension coil spring for biasing the lock lever 103 in such a direction as to cause the click 103a to protrude from the chassis 101, and that in FIG. 9, a reference numeral 107 designates a main chassis on which the chassis 101 is mounted.
When setting the magazine 102 with the CDs (not shown) on the chassis 102, the engagement portion 104a of the ejector lever 104 is pressed by the back 102b of the magazine 102 against the biasing force of the extension coil spring 105 so as to slide the magazine 102 on the chassis 101. Referring to FIG. 11, when the magazine 102 reaches its setting position on the chassis 101 as indicated by a two-dotted chain line in FIG. 11, the click 103a of the lock lever 103 protrudes from the chassis 101 so as to engage with the recess 102a of the magazine 102, thus locking the magazine 102.
On the other hand, when ejecting the magazine 102 from the chassis 101, the motor 111 of the lock releasing mechanism 110 is driven. Drive of the motor 111 produces rotation of the cam gear 116, actuating the lock releasing lever 117 which is engaged with the cam groove 116a of the cam gear 116. The click 103a of the lock lever 103 is thus retracted to the lower side 101a of the chassis 101, releasing the lock on the magazine 102. The engagement portion 104a of the ejector lever 104 presses the back 102b of the magazine 102 on its one end by the biasing force of the extension coil spring 105, thus ejecting the magazine 102.
With the previously known disk magazine remover system 100, however, since the ejector lever 104 for ejecting the magazine 102 is urged to slide on the lower side 101b of the chassis 101, slide friction produced between the ejector lever 104 and the lower side 101b of the chassis 101 results in a loss of magazine ejecting force due to the ejector lever 104. When the magazine 102 is loaded with 10 CDs in particular, a smooth ejection thereof cannot be obtained by the biasing force of the extension coil spring 105 or the like. Further, since the extension coil spring 119 should be arranged on the side of the lock releasing mechanism 110 so as to assist the biasing force of the extension coil spring 105, and the swing lever 118 is needed in addition to the cam gear 116 to move the extension coil spring 119, component parts of the lock releasing mechanism 110 increase in number, resulting in a complicated arrangement thereof.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a disk magazine remover system which is simple in architecture, and can smoothly and surely eject a heavy magazine.